Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for conducting the identification and quantification of micro-organisms, e.g., bacteria in biological samples such as urine. More particularly, the invention relates to a system comprising a cooling, heating and fan arrangement for maintaining a predetermined optimum temperature of the samples prior to and during testing; a visual, circumferential and axial alignment system for aligning the samples within a carousel; a transfer system for transferring the samples from a carousel to a centrifuge; a balancing system of minimizing the rotational vibrations of a centrifuge; a safety system and anti-tipping design for the sample containing system; liquid dispensing arms for dispensing a buffered saline solution; and discharge ports for discharging and disposing of liquid removed from the samples external of the system.
Description of Related Art
In general, current-day practice for identifying micro-organisms, e.g., bacteria in urine samples, involves a complex, lengthy, and expensive process for identifying and specifying micro-organisms in microbiology labs. In the current process, the samples are accepted into the lab. These specimens are then sorted, labeled, and then are inoculated onto blood agar medium using a sterilized loop. The specimens are then inserted into a dedicated incubator for a 24-hour period. A day later, the lab technicians screen the specimens for positive and negative cultures. In general, most of the cultures are negative and they are manually reported. The organisms for the positive cultures are isolated and suspended in a biochemical fluid. This involves suspension, dilution, vortexing, and turbidity measurements resulting in biochemical waste products. The cultures are then subjected to a species identification and antibiotics susceptibility testing exposing the suspensions to multiple reagents. After another 6 to 24-hour incubation period, the findings are interpreted and reported by lab technicians. This entire process generally takes 11 steps and 50 hours to obtain specimen results and the process is labor intensive.
Commonly owned U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US/2007/0037135 A1, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference, discloses a system for identification and quantification of a biological sample suspended in a liquid. As disclosed in the reference sample, cuvettes are used for holding the biological sample. The reference states that these cuvettes are said to be well-known in the art, are typically square or rectangular in shape (having a well area to contain the sample), and are made of a transparent material such as glass or a polymeric material. However, the reference fails to disclose any specific description/design of the cuvettes.
There is a need, therefore, particularly for species identification of the above lab procedure to provide a more efficient and less time consuming process which requires less labor.